1. Field
The present invention relates to a motherboard mounting structure and an image forming apparatus with the motherboard mounting structure.
2. Related Art
An image forming apparatus, such as a copier, a printer, a facsimile machine, etc., has a motherboard that generally controls an image forming apparatus and a control board having one or more external terminals that connect to an external device, such as a personal computer, etc. The motherboard and the control board are electrically connected by directly plugging a connector of the control board in a connector of the motherboard bypassing a harness or the like. The control board is secured to a mainframe of the image forming apparatus serving as a mounting board with its external terminals protruding toward an exterior of the image forming apparatus.
Further, an expansion terminal is sometimes provided in the control board for connecting an expansion unit to enhance the functionality of the image forming apparatus. For example, an HDD that stores image data or the like may be connected to expand memory capacity of the apparatus.
When the expansion unit is to be connected, the control board needs to be removed from the image forming apparatus. Therefore, the connector of the control board needs to be extracted from the connector of the motherboard. According to one example as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. JP-4091747-B (JP-2002-246773-A), an opening is formed in the surface of a mainframe of an image forming apparatus perpendicular to a surface the control board (hereinafter referred to as an orthogonal surface of the mainframe of the image forming apparatus) to allow removal of the control board from the mainframe of the image forming apparatus. Therefore, the control board is attached to a bracket slidably disposed in the mainframe of the image forming apparatus, which bracket has a cover plate that blocks the opening in the orthogonal surface of the mainframe. In this bracket, an expansion unit mount is provided to accommodate the expansion unit.
When the expansion unit, such as an HDD, etc., is added, the bracket is slid and moved to extract the control board from the opening in the orthogonal surface. Then, the connector of the control board and the connector of the motherboard are separated from each other, and the control board is after that removed from the opening in the orthogonal surface together with the bracket to an exterior of the image forming apparatus.
Subsequently, the expansion unit is attached to the expansion unit mount of the bracket and is then connected to the expansion terminal provided on the control board using a harness. When the expansion unit is connected to the expansion terminal in this way, the bracket is inserted through the opening in the orthogonal surface together with the expansion unit and the control board.
When the bracket is inserted from the opening in the orthogonal surface into the mainframe of the image forming apparatus, the connector of the control board attached to the bracket is plugged into the connector of the motherboard. At the same time, the cover plate blocks the above-described opening in the orthogonal surface. With this, the installation of the control board into the mainframe of the image forming apparatus is completed, so that the expansion unit is added.
However, in such a conventional configuration, the opening in the orthogonal surface becomes relatively large in order to enable the control board to be extracted from the mainframe of the image forming apparatus, thereby compromising the structural integrity of the image forming apparatus mainframe. Further, since the cover plate is needed in the control board to block the opening in the orthogonal surface, the number of components, and accordingly the device cost increase as a result.